Page 68 - robinson-crusoe

ing my two broken oars into the ground, one on one side
near one end, and one on the other side near the other end;
and thus I lay till the water ebbed away, and left my raft and
all my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek a prop-
er place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods to
secure them from whatever might happen. Where I was,
I yet knew not; whether on the continent or on an island;
whether inhabited or not inhabited; whether in danger of
wild beasts or not. There was a hill not above a mile from
me, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed
to overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it
northward. I took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of
the pistols, and a horn of powder; and thus armed, I trav-
elled for discovery up to the top of that hill, where, after I
had with great labour and difficulty got to the top, I saw any
fate, to my great affliction - viz. that I was in an island en-
vironed every way with the sea: no land to be seen except
some rocks, which lay a great way off; and two small islands,
less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west.
I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as
I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited except by wild
beasts, of whom, however, I saw none. Yet I saw abundance
of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither when I killed
them could I tell what was fit for food, and what not. At
my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting
upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the
first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the
world. I had no sooner fired, than from all parts of the wood